XA777ES in the house!

[Crimson]

Just picked it up 2 days ago from my local Sony dealer for 2K. Initial impressions:

PROS:
1. Built like a tank (like its first generation predecessors).
2. Fast loading of SACD's.
3. Extremely quiet.
4. CD playback better than my Camelot; comparable to my Wadia. Still putting hours on it.
5. SACD playback phenomenal. Initial impressions of comparing Santana's Abraxas on this unit using SACD, Wadia using CD, and vinyl, show it as an extremely promising format.

CONS:
1. Separate outputs for 2-channel and multichannel i.e. cannot use mutlichannel front outputs if playing a 2-channel disc.

Still requires further break-in and listening, but overall I am very pleased with the unit. I will post a further review after a few months.




Q.

[JonMarsh]

Sounds interesting Crimson! That's a good price, comparable to what Oades Bros. will do- they're where I got my SCD777ES.

I'm in the market a little later for an XA777ES, because I want to have SACD in the bedroom system also. Your comments reflect my experiences with the SCD777ES, excepting the fast loading!

Many have commented on the "burn-in" time required for these units to reach their best. I've made so many changes in my system I couldn't say if any of the improvement in sonics is due to burn-in of the SCD777ES, but I don't have any complaints.

Let us know your thoughts as you gain more time with it.

BTW, you're probably familiar with reviews of a lot of the disks out, but two that are pretty special are the Florestan Trio playing Piano Trios on Hyperion, and the James Taylor "Hourglass". "Jazz at the Pawnshop" is coming out soon from FIM, I expect that to be pretty amazing, given how good the HDCD is.

And if you try the Sony on CD, does it have the variable filter coefficients like the SCD777ES? Try DF3, it should be the closest to your Wadia, I think. It's my preferred setting.

Happy listening!

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Crimson]

Jon,
Haven't played with the filters yet. Still awed at how good SACD sounds. Thanks for the disc recommendations....I'll check them out.




Q.

[Lex]

Kewl Crimson, I can only wish.

Lex

[Crimson]

Update!

I'm really falling in love with SACD playback. It just sounds so right. Also, CD playback seems to be getting better with time as I've got plenty of it on my hands (was laid off a week ago and feel like a new man!).

With regards to filters, the unit has 2 filter options, but I still feel the standard playback option sounds best to me.




Q.

[JonMarsh]

Hi Crimson,

Mmmmm, new man, huh? We just had an email put out by our US CEO explaining there would be more layoffs on top of the one's from last August (yeah, a month ago), and they also had a "voluntary severance" package- which looks pretty good, other than my not knowing what I'd do to make a living after the severance money ran out. (with 16 years with Infineon, I'd get a months pay, plus a week for each year). Oh year, there's one other glitch, it would only be approved based on business need, and I'm the only person doing my particular job for the whole NAFTA region, so I guess that leaves me out.

Seriously, though, is the filter option on the XA777ES like the output filter setting on the SCD777ES (which is basically "normal" and "wideband", i.e., normal is 40 kHz, wideband is 100 kHz; this affects SACD only), or in the case of CD playback on the 777 ES and SCD-1, there are five digitial filter options for CD, which vary in the time domain and frequency domain properties, such as the way a Wadia player varies from most Std. CD players (reduces some of group delay issues, pre and post ringing on square waves), or the way the Ayre CD player uses the BB chip set "Measure" (flattest frequency response 20-20K) or "listen" (best time domain behavior, slower roll off in the highs, some changes in stopband behavior). I do prefer the SCD777ES in the DF3 mode, which is most similar to the Wadia and the Ayre. Note this is DSP stuff going on before the CD signal is converted to DSD- both CD and DSD go through the same output DACs.

Anyway, enjoy your player. Wish someone knew where there was a PDF file for your owners manual- Sony probably has one floating around somewhere, I have them for a lot of the Sony gear I have.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Crimson]

Jon,

The 'package' is the reason why I feel invigorated. Don't work and still get paid? Heck, yeah! (But that will only last so long).

The filters available on this unit, from what I understand, affect CD playback only. Don't know exactly what thier doing. There are no filters available for SACD playback as the 'tri-DAC' per side technique is new (at least for stereo). The manual was written by ........ lets just say it sucks?

All this time and such a lot of music to listen to................

(BTW, I've got the James Taylor disc on order).




Q.